I make my own schedule doing remote software consulting now and have previously worked with startups and FAANGM+ after an acquisition. Over my career I seen ma

I make my own schedule doing remote software consulting now and have previously worked with startups and FAANGM+ after an acquisition. Over my career I seen many different types of schedules from 9 to 5 , 10 to 6, basically 24 / 7 (people just starting or working on scaling startups pulling 80 hr weeks) You have to decide whats right for you and do what you can to shape it the way you want. I explain it like this, work life balance is a spectrum. On one end I know some people for whom work is life. If you contact them at 3pm on Saturday they'll be in the office happily on the grind. Its their everything. On the other end you have people who do just enough work to not get fired even in the middle of the week and focus on their hobbies in their spare time. I used to think poorly of either extreme and now I've come to the conclusion that who am I to judge? You make of life what you want to. I personally have chosen to strike a very strong balance. So there are some weeks where work is everything and others where personal life is and I work a max of 8ish hours that week or just take it off all together. The hard part initially is finding work that is conducive to this. Startups are not and though larger companies can be the tough part is finding an organization that has enough trust that people will be respectful of when to work harder and also when to make sure to take time off or slow down. I find the right balance of happiness and productivity for me is - Full time M, W, Th (usually start between 10am and 12pm) - Half time Tues (and Sundays on occasion only when I need extra time to plan out the we ahead). Off on Saturdays and most Fridays as well. I also workout regularly Sun, Tue, Fri. its huge for energy and overall wellbeing. I've been toying around with trying to build a community around people who value schedule flexiblity and strong worklife balance. There are plenty for the 80hr week startup crowd but less for the lifestyle business crowd. feel free to reach out if you are interested